SPOP – Student Parent Orientation Program

Going into spop, I was skeptical and hesitant. I’m not the most social person but I came out of spop with good friends and a warm heart. Seriously. It made me laugh and cry (with happiness) which is ridiculous, right? Who cries at orientation? The answer: everyone. The staff made me feel at home and everyone was so nice I’d go back anytime. So look forward to it and remember to enjoy yourself because you get out what you put into it.

i love spop!!! Gold year!!!

Simply put, one of the most amazing experiences of my life. The staffers, the incoming freshmen, the food, the activities. Everything was amazing and I couldn’t ask for more!

If you’re an incoming freshman to UC Irvine, get excited for SPOP! It’s an exciting two days that will get you motivated and inspired to start your next phase in your education.
If you’re someone thinking about applying for staff, DO IT! It’s one of the most unique and rewarding experiences of your college experience. Trust me.
SPOP is the freshmen orientation program for incoming UCI students. It has a strong reputation and tradition on it’s own. Other schools mention and envy UCI’s orientation program and the alumni support is some of the strongest. The staffers, unpaid volunteers, make up the experience of the year. They come from all walks of life, from all parts of the campus, but all have the common goal of wanting to help the incoming generation of UCI students in their transition into college.
SPOP is a safe, honest way for both the student and the parent to get a sample of what’s to come in the next 4 years. The student staffers and staff members are an encyclopedia of knowledge and insight, both in the logistics of the campus as well as untold experiences and struggles each person brings, the story of a soul.
As a participant, just go into the orientation with no expectations and an open mind. You will need to do so coming into college anyways, might as well start here, where you’ll have a hall, 50 other dorm mates, and a staff of 6 – 7 who will guide you through the 2 days as you go to advisings, orientations, and meals. You will get to experience campus and dorm life and you will make friends, just be willing and it will happen.
As a staffer, do good work. The program is fun, and there’s a lot of campus hype around it, and a lot of it is warranted. However, I ask you to understand that the program is for the spoppers, and you are there as UCI ambassadors and mentors to participants who are taking their first scary steps towards adulthood. You have a lot of influence in your hands, use them to mold something worthwhile.
SPOP is beautiful. Teal, Gold, Royal, with love. (07 – 09)

Life changing, mind altering, one of the best summers of my life.
And I wasn’t even an incoming freshman to UCI.
NOPE, I was a senior, and a staffer. Purple Year 2006.
Many people do not pick UCI as their first choice, or second or third. Some do. Those that didn’t pick UCI as a top choice, well there are plenty of reasons to be hesitant. pick from the plethora of reasons… I did.
That is why UCI created SPOP. Student Parent Orientation Program. a program like no other orientation program at any other school, at least not that anyone has heard of. I won’t go into the details of the SPmagic.
But as a freshman, I promise some of your best and most influential friends through your college experience and probably the rest of your life will be those you meet on that wary weekend. You won’t be able to sit still through the summer, waiting and wishing that the first day will come when you can finally move into the dorms. Put down your guard, or we, the staffers will spend the weekend doing it for you, just have fun! No judgment, none of that b.s. high school crap of having to fit into some mold of what’s cool. It’s like that song in high school musical… just be yourself! Trust me, the staffers are weird and random but tonssss of fun – and cool… we’re not super dorks who have nothing better to do with our lives then staff… you’ll love us!
Parents, always worried, always anxious to let their child go. If you really want to get to know what college is all about, to see the kind of people they’ll be encountering and what this school has to offer your baby, well sign up. But, really this is the perfect and legitimate excuse to just spend a weekend away from the responsibilities of adulthood and pretend to be a kid again. You get to sleep in the dorms with other moms or dads, eat college dorm food and ice cream, no a/​c, no wifi, share common bathroom, sit in lecture halls, and not have to yell at your kid, its FANTASTIC! Well, aren’t you lucky you get to send your kid here.
Kids, (sorry I keep using kids because as a staffer the incoming become your kids) I know, being anywhere with your parents is considered uncool at this point in your life. But this is an eye-​opener to really get to know them on a different level in a completely different environment and besides… you’re not in HS and noone is going to remember who was who’s parent and really, from staffing a parent hall, parents are sooo cool!
And yes, they get their own hall, you do NOT share the experience with each other. this is that transition period – pointless if you are sharing a room with mommy or daddy… two separate experiences yet you experience it together. magical, no? :D
Staff. The most amazing, random, completely different yet eerily similar group of people. Staffers begin training spring qtr and spend tiring and endless hours entertaining the incoming freshman and parents throughout the hot sweltering summer for FREE. Actually, we indirectly pay to staff. But we LOVE IT. Once again won’t go into details, but if you go to UCI, I highly encourage you to apply. It’s a very humbling experience to be able to influence so many people, incoming, parents, other staffers, in such a short amount of time when you aren’t even totally sure what it is you did. No details, just sending out the SPlove.
Shout out to my Purple Year, the DWs, and all staffers of the rainbow!
(Don’t spill the beans, but my future kids are coming here (even if that means they have to accept then drop out and go to their choice school) just so I can join them at SPOP and be in the parent hall, no joke. Yea, no joke.)
«We cannot hold a torch to light another’s path without brightening our own» –Ben Sweetland (Purple Year 2006)
ZOTZOTZOT!